China puts 6 provincial-level officials into prison in 2005 – Xinhua

In the fight against corruption and other job-related crimes, Chinese courts convicted six provincial and ministerial officials to prison in 2005, the same as in 2004, while much more lower level officials were given criminal penalty, chief justice Xiao Yang said Saturday.

Courts across the country heard 24,277 cases of embezzlement, bribery and dereliction of duty in 2005, and sentenced 1,932 officials above the county level to prison, said Xiao, president of the Supreme People’s Court, in his report to the annual sessionof the Tenth National People’s Congress.

“Of the convicted, six were provincial or ministerial officials,178 were prefecture level officials,” he said.